Pyramid orchids

In the past there have been a lot of pyramid orchids in the field behind what used to be the doctors' surgery which contains Brading's children's playground, so one evening a week or so ago I thought I would walk down and take a look. It would probably all depend on the mowing situation, the form being, I think, that the back parts of the field are mowed once or twice a year, the front parts more often.

In the car park adjacent I found the smart looking but old vehicle snapped above. A Hillman something. The owner a member of the AA, the Civil Service Motoring Association and the Vectis Historic Vehicle Club. Oddly the car check people at reference 1 have not heard of it, although it must take regular MOT tests like the rest of us.

Google Images suggests a 1948 Mark II Hillman Minx Drop Head Coupé, whatever one of those is. I had just been struck by how narrow the front of the engine compartment was. Slightly older than I am. Maybe £6,000 at auction. 

Most of the field beyond had been mown, but I was able to find a few orchids in the odd strips that had been left for some reason. Was the idea just to leave the cut grass and let it rot down? Or were they going to pick it up for hay? Too far gone for silage.

Back home, I try my hand at a few close-ups.

And it starts to look as if the individual florets do indeed conform to the orchid plan. Green seed cases below.

Individual florets a bit more tricky, clearly more practise and maybe some elementary equipment is needed. But, for what it is worth, my take is that the three big pinks behind are the three sepals, while the three petals are a bit lost in the muddle in front of them.

I did a bit better the following morning, but it is still far from clear what is going on. Maybe what I need to do is try and draw one while have still got the real thing in front of me. Maybe with an ordinary magnifying glass rather than with a telephone which needs two hands.

Bingo. At least this time I have got the three sepals behind and the big three pronged lower petal, with the other two petals making up the corolla (?) above. Work in progress.

References

Reference 1: https://www.carcheck.co.uk/.